National
Development Agency

The Directors of the Szily Kálmán (transport and engineering industry), Ybl Miklós (building industry) and Petrik Lajos (chemical industry) vocational education and training centres, as well as the representative of the European Social Fund ceremoniously signed the assistance contract marking the launch of this colossal project at City Hall on 4 March.  

In accordance with the Act on vocational training in effect since September 2007 and the vocational training development plan of the capital, the Municipality of Budapest applied for European Union assistance within the framework of the New Hungary Development Plan to develop the vocational training schools of the capital and transform the vocational training system. "Thanks to the successful tendering activities, 8.4 billion HUF has so far been approved for developing vocational training professional-methodological work and infrastructure in the capital. Positive changes so far affecting the present and future of 50 institutions and 33,000 young people have been launched and will be completed by 2010." – said Mr Csaba Horváth Deputy Mayor responsible for education and vocational training.

Three additional vocational training centres in the capital are now also presented with the opportunity of implementing major infrastructure developments within the framework of the Central Hungary Operational Programme, since the assistance contracts of these projects were signed on Wednesday. The significance of these interventions is well demonstrated by how Mr Laszlo Varju State Secretary of the Ministry for National Development and Economy, Mr Gábor Simon State Secretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, Mr Gábor Lebovits Managing Director of the European Social Fund National Implementing Agency Public Company and Dr Pál Steiner President of the Central Hungary Regional Development Council were also present at the official signing ceremony. The directors of the three vocational training centres approved funding, namely, Mrs Márkus, Ildikó Gábor (from Szily), Mr Albert Deli (from Ybl) and Mr Zsolt Bertalan (from Petrik) signed the assistance contract on behalf of their respective institutions, which document was countersigned by Mr Csaba Horváth Deputy Mayor on behalf of the capital. 

New modern training workshops equipped with state-of-the-art peak technologies and costing nearly 1 billion HUF in each institution will be developed. The EU funding also makes it possible to ensure key requirements, such as, equal opportunity, raising the social status of disadvantaged people and helping these people to work, as well as the principle of life-long learning. Szily also envisages launching Regional Integrated Training Centre (TISZK) courses for enterprises in its training workshops; Ybl will evolve into the examination centre of the central Hungary region, whilst Petrik will also assume TISZK-related technical community functions in its renewed vocational training institute.